Stabilizer



Match 20, 1934. E, G, GOODWIN STABILIZER Filed March 3, '1931 INVENTOR,6. 6. 600Z7W/N Patented Mar. 20, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICESTABILIZER Ernest G. Goodwin, Pelham, N. Y., assignor to StandardCoupler Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New JerseyApplication March 3, 1931, Serial No. 519,816.

16 Claims.

inserted between the truck spring and the axle,

particularly in that type of truck where such spring is directly abovethe car axle.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a shoehaving-a vertical face to engage a liner on the column or pedestal legand having somewhat horizontal but sloping faces Whereby'the shoes willbe wedged outwardly upon relative movement of the. car frame and axle,preferably having such wedging action both with the journal box and withthe lower spring seat.

In my previous application, Serial No. 356,253, I have illustrated adampening device in connection with a truck side frame of the type whichcarries the bolster centrally and which is supported on an axle ateither end, and the present structure may be considered as a specificembodiment of the invention broadly claimed, in such application, thepresent case being limited to the use of the dampening device inconnection with a side frame which is spring supported upon an axle as,for example, in the well known Fox truck.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section.

Figure 2 is a vertical section generally central but slightly offsetthru the axes of vertically alined rollers.

Figure 3 is a horizontal section thru the axis of one of the rollers.

In the specific form of the invention chosen as the illustrativeembodiment of my invention, the frame is numbered 10 and may be integralwith the pedestal legs 11 and 12, the latter, as is customary, beingconnected at their bottom edges by a pipe-enclosed tie bar 14 closingthe bottom of the jaw and preventing spread of the legs.

The frame at its top has the usual spring centering boss 15 to seat oneor more of the spring units which are collectively numbered 16 and restat their bottom portions on the spring seat 17, supported upon thejournal boxl9 by a pair of shoes 20, and a series of rollers 27 and 28from which construction it will be seen that the truck springs 16 arevertically above the axle 21 between which and the journal box roof arepositioned the usual bearing wedge 22 and the journal bearing 23.

The top surface of the journal box difiers from usual practice in thatit is composed of downwardly and outwardly sloping faces which mayslidingly engage the correspondingly tapered faces of the shoes, I muchprefer however not to have direct engagement between the shoe and thetop of the journal box and for this reason I transversely groove thejournal box roof as at 25 and groove the lower tapered face of the shoein the same manner as at 26 and between these I position. one or morerollers 27 which while they may be cylindrical, I prefer to haveelliptical in cross section as the action is thereby consider- 5 ablyimproved,

Supposingfor a moment that the springs 16 rest directly upon the shoes20, as they may withoutv departing. from my invention, the downward urgeof the spring'as in the lurching of a car causes the transfer ofpressure from a position on the line of .contact.between the roller 27and the shoe to a point of contact between this roller and the surface25 which is parallel to the surface of the top of the journal box andthe line of pres- I sure above the roller is further from the centerline of Figure 1 than is the line of pressure between the roller andthebox surface 25. This will not cause the roller to-slip but it'will causethe roller to roll in a clockwise direction,'not only causing the shoesto move away from each other but will permit gravity to lower the shoesslightly with respect to the journal box as the shoes move away fromeach other. As in my previous devices of this kind the introduction ofpositive friction go between the shoe and the pedestal face minimizesthe rocking of the car and eliminates completely the highlyobjectionable accumulative roll, and vertical jiggling.

In addition to the rolling contact between the shoes 20 and the journalbox 19, I prefer to have a'similar rocking contact between the springseat 1'? and the upper sloping surfaces of the two innor ends of theshoes. The rollers 28 are identical with the rollers 27, like them beingelliptical 190 in cross section and seating between parallelslopingsurfaces 29 and 30 on the spring seat and the shoes respectively. Theaction of the rollers 28, however, is counterclockwise but the'effect isexactly the same, i., ,e., to cause the spring seat to 105 lower withrespect to the shoes as well as with respect to the journal box. As weartakes place on the'vertical friction faces of the shoes the rollers willbe carried with the shoes creeping outwardly toward the columns orpedestal legs on the spring seat and journal box surfaces and in thisway will always be accurately positioned.

Each pedestal leg is recessed to form a shoulder 32 at the top and asimilar but considerably larger shoulder 33 at the bottom between which,and in engagement with both, is positioned a liner 34 secured to thecolumn as by the rivets 35 which merely serve to hold the liner inplace, the actual resistance to movement under load being taken care ofby the shoulders 32 and 33 as well as by the shape of the liner whichthruout' the major. per--v tion of its length is U-shaped in horizontalcross section as seen in Figure 3. At the upper portion, however, theliner flanges are bent in the opposite direction as at 36 to serve tosave edge wear of the flangeless portion 38 of the shoe, these reverselybent flanges 36 of the liner being positioned the spring confiningportion of the frame.

The major portion of' each shoe .20 consists generally of a verticalliner engaging plate 39 having at either side, flanges 40 extending atright angles to the plate portion 39, such flanges clearing but slightlythe side portions of the liner andcoacting with said side portions tolimit lateral.

movement of the side frame which in this particular embodiment hasvertical movement with respect to the axle 21. The horizontal portion44. of the shoe is centrally disposed with respect to the vertical plateportion 39 and has at its free end the previously describedwedge-shaped, horizontally disposed member upon which are provided thesloping faces 26 and 30.

The wedge portion and the horizontal or bracket portion 44 are joinedabove with the friction faceplate 39 by tapered reinforcing ribs 46, thespring seat 17 being of sufficiently small size to be positioned withinthe space defined by these four ribs. The somewhat similar ribs 47 beloware necessarily smaller to provide clearance for the journal box. Aspreviously noted the side flanges 40 are cut away as at 41 leaving anupwardly extending portion 38 substantially the full width of theopposed parallel faces of the two liners. Axial movement of the rollers2'7 and 28 is prevented by means of lugs 48 and 49 on the journal boxand by corresponding downturned lugs 50 on the spring seat 1'7.

What I claim is:

1. In a device for preventing accumulative rocking and/or bouncing ofcars, a frame having a face, a journal box, aspring for supporting said1 frame upon said box, a shoe between the frame and the box andfrictionally'engaging said face,

and wedging means to urge the shoe against the face as the spring iscompressed by movement of the frame toward the box.

2. In a device to prevent accumulative rocking and/or bouncing ofrailway cars, a truck frame, an axle supported member, a spring forsupporting the frame on the member, a spring seat member, and a singledampening means engaging the seat member, the axle supported member andthe frame.

3. In a device to prevent accumulative rocking and/or bouncing ofrailway cars, a truck frame, an axle supported member, a spring forsupporting the frame-on the member, a spring seat, and dampening meansengaging the seat, the axle supported member, and the frame, saiddampening means comprising a shoe having oppositely tapered faces.

4. In a device to prevent accumulative rocking and/or bouncing ofrailway cars, a truck frame,-

an axle supported member, a spring for supporting the frame on themember, a spring seat, and dampening means engaging the seat, the axlesupported member, and the frame, said dampening means comprising a pairof shoes each having a vertical face to engage the frame and havingsloping faces cooperating with sloping faces on the seat and the member.

5. In a truck, a frame member, an axle supported spring, and wedgingmeans between the axle and spring movable with respect to the memher forfrictionally engaging the member upon application of vertical pressureto the spring.

6. In a truck, a side frame, an axle, springs for supporting the frameon the axle, a spring seat, means frictionally engaging the side frame,and anti-friction members between said means and the seat and betweensaid means and the axle.

'7. Ina truck, a side frame pedestal leg, an axlesupported member, ashoe engaging said member and having frictional engagement with thepedestal leg, 9. spring seat engaging said shoe, a frame-supporting,vertically positioned spring on said seat, coacting wedging surfaces onsaid seat, member, and shoe for transforming vertical pressure on thespring to, horizontal pressure between the shoe and the pedestal leg.

8. In a device for limiting accumulative rolling,

or vertical jiggling of a railway vehicle, a frame member havingsubstantially vertical parallel faces, a pair of shoes adapted to slideon said faces with frictional engagement, an axle-supported member,oppositely sloping faces on said shoes and said member, rockers betweenthe shoes and said member engaging said sloping faces to trans-'- formvertical load on the frame member in part to a horizontal pressurebetween the shoes and the frame.

9. In combination, a,journal box, a truck spring vertically above saidbox, a frame resting on said spring and having parallel vertical faces,a shoe engaging each face, a bracket extending horizontally from eachshoe and having oppositely tapered roller seats, rollers engaging saidseats, roller seats on said box, and a member between two of saidrollers and said spring.

10. In a device to prevent accumulative rocking, bouncing, jiggling,etc. of a railway car, a journal box, a spring seat above the box, apedestal spring-supported upon said seat and having opposed frictionsurfaces on its column walls, a pair of shoes each engaging one of saidsurfaces and having engagement with the seat and the box whereby theshoes tend to move apart as the seat and the box approach each other.

11. The device of claim 10 in which each shoe has a wedge portionincluding converging sloping faces.

12. The device of claim 10 in which each shoe has roller engagement withthe seat and with the box.

13. In combination, a spring seat, a journal box roof, a pair of shoesbetween the seat and roof each having a vertical friction plateextending above the seat and-below the roof, sloping surfaces on theroof converging upwardly toward the center, sloping surfaces on the seatconverging downwardly toward the center, and rollers, elliptical intransverse cross section, directly engaging the shoes and rolling onsaid'surfaces.

14. In a device to prevent accumulative rocking and/or bouncing ofrailway cars, av truck frame, an axle supported member, a spring seatmember, and a. plurality of dampening means each engaging both membersand also the frame, said damptional engagement whereby snubbing occursin proportion to the relative movement of the frame and the journal boxmembers.

16. I'he device of claim 15 in which the movement between the shoes andthe frictionally engaged member is relatively great and the movementbetween the shoes and the other member is relatively small, and rockermeans positioned between said other member and said spring actuatedmeans.

ERNEST G. GOODWIN.

